Foolproof
by olympius
Summary: There were hundreds of things that could have gone wrong at Rose Weasley's sorting, but she never anticipated being the only Gryffindor in her year. Ah well, such is life. Until her sixth year that is. That's when Scorpius Malfoy shows up and starts walking all over Rose's territory. Not cool. He had to go, that much was certain. Her solution? Prank him out of Hogwarts.


_Disclaimer: Anything you recognise as being drawn from the Harry Potter series is the work of JK Rowling_

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><p>Rose Weasley had been rather sceptical when the dusty, old hat had been placed on a stool in front of the first years. True, she hadn't been foolish enough to believe James' tales of duals to the death in front of the entire school, but she had expected something a little more grand, but she supposed it wasn't her place to judge the methods of the great founders of Hogwarts.<p>

Not out loud at least.

Now Rose had always been a rather unruly girl. "Very bright and hard-working," her teachers had said, "though perhaps a bit brash. It also wouldn't hurt if she learned to take note of other's opinions every once in a while, and show them a bit more consideration." Her dad had laughed at that one.

Right now however, she wasn't particularly concerned with taking their words to heart. A more considerate person might have made an effort to watch her cousin put on the dirty old hat; she was sure that was what Al would do at any rate. However, said compassionate person might not be as terrified as Rose Weasley was at that moment. So naturally she decided that the best course of action would be to stare at the floor, for as long as was necessary and ignore anything that was going on around her.

It was either that or possibly throw up from nerves and, though she wasn't exactly a social butterfly, even Rose knew that the latter was definitely _not_ the way to make a good first impression.

And so she stared at the floor.

And she stared.

And she stared.

And she sta- "Weasley, Rose" a crisp voice called out across the Great Hall. Rose was jerked out of her reverie, only to realise that she was standing alone in the centre of the room. Oh the benefits of being a Weasley.

As she started the slow, daunting, and rather tentative walk to the hat, she looked around for Al. Surreptitiously of course, she didn't need to stand out any more than was necessary, not on the first day at least. But try as she might she couldn't identify him amongst the sea of black robes. She supposed it was probably because he was so short. Well, he was at least a centimetre shorter than her which, at age eleven, made him infinitely inferior.

Rose closed her eyes as the hat was placed over her head, almost touching her nose. She'd never realised her head was so small. Curious.

"Ah, a Weasley" the hat muttered in her ear, almost causing Rose to fall off the stool in shock. That would nothave been a good start. The hat chuckled. "No, I don't suppose it would have been. Now, let's see. Well there's definitely brains, a thirst for knowledge too- inherited those from your mother no doubt." Rose raised her eyebrows; the hat was going to give her a lecture on her personality? Why couldn't it just make up its mind and get on with it? The stool was rather uncomfortable and she didn't fancy sitting there for any longer than was strictly necessary.

"But rather more impudent I see," She supposed the hat could hear her. Ah well. If she was perfectly honest Rose didn't really care all that much if she insulted a hat. A hat couldn't give her detention. "yes definitely a lot more, shall we say 'spunky' than some of your relatives." Too right, Molly was absolutely dire. "Yes, quite. Well I thought I might be facing a situation similar to that of your mother for a moment but now there's no question. I think it ought to be Gryffindor!" The last word the hat decided to shout out to the entire hall, rather to Rose's annoyance. Couldn't it wait until it was removed from her head before yelling in her ear? Honestly, that was the least considerate hat she'd ever met.

But even her ringing ears weren't enough to discourage the grin that crept on to her face. Gryffindor was the best house- that fact had been drilled into her since birth. Her dad was very dedicated when it came to these things. As was James, whom Rose had decided to sit next to when she reached the table on her left. Dom was sat on James' other side; she supposed they must hang out quite a lot, both being second year Gryffindors, though she'd never really thought about it before.

After she'd sat down, McGonagall gave a short speech and then invited them all to dig in to the vast array of food that had suddenly appeared before them. It was amazing. No really, it could give Nana Molly a run for her money (not that Rose would ever tell her that of course. She did value her life after all).

"So where's Al? I kind of blanked out for the whole ceremony." Rose turned to James who was currently stuffing his face with roast chicken. Boys were so gross.

"Ravenclaw" James mumbled, though it was barely coherent through all the food in his mouth. Rose saw Dom shrivel her nose in disgust from across the table which was saying something, because Dom may have been part Veela but she had the table manners of Uncle Bill at a full moon.

She was a bit disappointed that she wouldn't be in the same house as Al; it would have been nice to have somebody she knew around. She supposed this would also mean she'd actually have to make friends. What a shame. However, it was a cross she'd have to bear, and the sooner she started the easier it would be, she supposed.

That was when Rose first realised something was wrong. She looked at up and down the table many, many times. And once more, just to make sure. But every time she looked, her conclusion was the same: there were no other first years sat at that table. Not one.

Rose had been worrying about this day for three months in total, working herself up about every little thing she imagined could possibly go wrong. Except she supposed now that claim was redundant, because she may have been lying awake for hours last night, fretting over the day's events, but she certainly hadn't seen that one coming.

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><p>AN: This idea has been brewing in my head for a while so I hope you like it. Also I thought I'd let you know that the story will be in 1st person from here on out I just thought I'd try something different for the prologue. Any general feedback would be appreciated since this is my first proper fanfic. Thanks for reading!


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